January 3/07 8:15 am - Symmetrics Discusses Early Season Plans

Posted by Editor on 01/3/07

Symmetrics Early Season Plans

We have had communication with Kevin Cunningham of Symmetrics Cycling about their early season road and track plans. Current indications are that Symmetrics, like most North American Tier 3 squads, will not receive an entry into the Tour of California (ToC). Kevin provided the following explanation and list of athletes for the Los Angeles Track World Cup:

We officially have not heard from Medalist Sports (ToC) but we (would not be) surprised of our non-selection. I cannot comment on the selection process as I simply don't know what it was. We made it clear 6 months ago that we would like to receive an invitation to the race and with numerous attempts to get some feedback from them we gave up and made other plans. My assumption is the willingness of N. American teams to sponsor certain parts of the race is the driving force on who is selected and who is not. A Canadian team that is unwilling to become a sponsor of the race gives very little value to Medalist Sports. In the end, if we received an invitation we would have declined it.

When we put a race program together we look at the all the reasons to do a race. In other words: will our sponsors get exposure, will our athletes compete in a race that is worth the expense and does it fit our goals for the season. ToC doesn't really fit that criteria for us. This race is the most expensive race to do by a significant amount and being it is in February we question whether it is worth it. We are planning some other races that we feel are better early season races that will give our team the early season fitness they can use to build on. Our focus will always be in June / July and Aug and our early season races are used to build toward this time. We can race in great UCI stage races which are much longer in days and distance. This is what our athletes want and I certainly prefer this also.

(With respect to the) World Cup in LA - Yes we are going down to this race with the following athletes:

This will be our first opportunity to race in the Team Pursuit. As we build towards the Pan Am Championships we need to get in as much racing in this discipline as possible. Everything we are doing in Team Pursuit is focused on having a legitimate shot at winning the TP at the Pan Am Championships in May. This is critical for Olympic selection. Based on our current progress we feel confident in our ability to do well in LA and continue to improve moving towards the Pan Am Championships.

We can only enter one person (or team) per event and we cannot have Zach doing the Pursuit for the National team and the rest (of the races) for us. Currently, Svein is showing some excellent numbers in training and we feel he can put down an excellent time in the IP. He needs to get as much racing in IP as he can, as he is so new to the track. We have planned that each guy gets to race 2 events. It lets them focus and be properly prepared.

This week we have 5 guys doing the Burnaby Six Day, which will be great prep. Svein is currently fighting a bad cold so he is going to take it pretty easy until he feels better. We also have one more training camped planned after this before heading to LA.